Software Tools Minutes
                                 3/22/96

Present:    J. Hobbs (minutes taker), D. Genser, H. Greenlee, A. Jonckheere, 
            Q. Li-Demarteau, L. Lueking, L. Paterno, S. Protopopescu, 
            S. Snyder, S. Krzywdzinski, and G. Watts

  Laura Paterno presented her revised compiler recommendation note.  In 
addition to minor wording changes the following items were added under the
heading of separate documentation to be maintained on an ongoing basis:

      1) A FAQ for compiler/IDE maintainers.  
           This is intended to aid maintainers of the D0 environment at
           remote institutions when upgrading/installing a supported compiler.

      2) A list of supported compilers/IDE and the name of a person responsible
           for questions regarding each compiler.

      3) A list of requirements that a compiler must satisfy before it can
           be an official compiler/IDE.

These changes will be made with a goal of signing off on the document in mid-
week.


  Alan Jonkheere described the first(?) meeting of the joint D0/CDF/CD code
management group.  He noted that this group maintains a web page at
http://www-cdf.fnal.gov/offline/code_management/home_page.html.  He also 
informed the group that a prototype CVS installation at D0 has begun.  This is
based on the SDSS methods and scripts.

  Scott Snyder and Gordon Watts gave an overview of scripting languages and 
their features.  In general, D0 has a number of scripting languages already
in use.  Examples include RCP files, .pbd files and trigger parsing scripts.
Gordon emphasized the notion of a universal scripting language, but noted that
perhaps the different functions (eg RCP vs trigger parsing as data storage vs.
procedural) would actually imply a small set of languages.  It was also noted
that in general, the scripting language is an interpreter linked into user
code.  

  Three specific scripting languages were mentioned and the pros and cons we
described.  An example was given for each language.  The languages are TCL, 
Python, Perl and each is summarized here.

   TCL - See http://www.sunlabs.com/research/tcl

      Pros: Sun computer is godfather'ing
            simple syntax
            TK for graphics
            large code base

      Cons: all variables are strings
            awkward for expressions
            single global name space

   Python - See http://www.python.org     *USED BY FRAMEWORK PROTOTYPE GROUP*

      Pros: large tool suite
            large library suite (including GUI)
            coordinating organization
            embedded C/C++
            object oriented

      Cons: block definition by indentation
            
   Perl - See http://www.perl.com

      Pros: de facto unix standard
            large user base
            good for text processing
            TK library for graphics
            object system (recent versions)

      Cons: complex syntax
            context dependent syntax
            non-interactive (not trivial to link as interpreter in user code)